The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for controlling movements of a pointing device according to movements of an object. The invention is particularly useful in televising and recording sport events, where cameras are used for tracking the movements of a ball or puck, and/or of key players. The invention is therefore described below especially with respect to such an application, but it will be appreciated that the invention is also useful in many other applications, as will be also described below.
In televising sport events of high profile, a large number of cameras are used for capturing images of the ball, puck, or selected player included in each play from number of different views, which images are selected for playback to better show different aspects of the plays. This involves high costs since it requires a large number of operators to control the many cameras and the selected playbacks. Such methods are therefore generally restricted to televising sport events of high profile, such as professional or college games, and are generally not used in lower profile sports such as high school games. Another drawback is that showing the different aspects of each play in the form of playbacks interrupts the continuity of viewing of a game by the viewers. Similar drawbacks are involved in controlling pointing devices, other than cameras, according to the movements of the objects other than balls, bucks or the players.